Why not do it like this?:
Each world will have a Titan, yes? Each titan will hold a door to another world. That titan is hard as ■■■■■ to beat. Killing one means you and your party have coordinated a perfect assault, with no gift of a second chance to defeat it. What I mean with this is that if you die against it there is no second chances. The temple is sealed to you for ever, and you cannot try again.
This also implies that in other parts of the world you will get tips and certain things that will help you defeating the Titan. So you are forced to explore and cannot rush the Titan, or you’ll loose your chance forever.
This “help” are legendary gear that can only be found in certain places, and it is kept well hidden and protected by small bosses, that even though aren’t as nearly as though as a titan they are hard enough. They have a drop-rate of this certain legendary gears. To balance out people that cannot defeat such monsters, there are also tips around the world, in abandoned temples that hold mysterious codes and cyphers written on the walls, with no real boss fights. The challenge will be completely mental and only the smartest and wittiest of exlporers will get the tips.
Of course, once someone deciphers the tips, they will most probably leak them, but they might not do it too, since their only chance of beating the Titan would be given away. This will remove the need for strategy guides.
Once a party of friends who travelled the land searching for this codes and gear get to the Titan’s territory, an incredible fight begins. The fight is hard as heck, and beating the titan is way more than just going in with tips and a couple of god-tier swords.
As they defeat it, a door to another world opens, and a monolith appears in the middle of the room. The monolith now depicts the name of the few that could take down this incredible beast, with another passage to a room hidden under the titan’s lair: A rematch zone. In this place, you can summon the titan again, and let other players have a go at it, but their name won’t be written anywhere. Also, this second titan will be a toned down version of the first. Don’t get this wrong, it would be still be a tough fight, but it wont be as tough, and it won’t drop the same level of loot.
This would accoplate all your ideas, as beating a titan is now a matter of not a race, but a race of wits and exploration. It is a challenge and adds a bit of competition. What can also be done is have other objetives in-game as well as the titan run. I’ll post in a bit about this, but what I mean is that for players that have no chance of beating a titan say it is because a titan is too hard for them or they simply don’t want to risk it or are too casual, to have a chance of shining in another way. But for now this allows for a good lore.
